Home Tycoon Brings City Building To PlayStation Home

PlayStation Home is about to give gamers a much bigger playground to explore as Hellfire Games announces the impending release of Home Tycoon, a 3D city-building game bound for PS3's social virtual world that lets you build your own city from the ground up, then explore it with your own avatar.

Easily one of the most ambitious games to hit PlayStation Home so far, Hellfire Community Manager Ben Lewis pulled back the curtain on Home Tycoon this morning on the PlayStation Blog, saying the game features “a robust city-building simulation, tons of story-driven missions and activities, vehicle driving...and over 50 avatar rewards to unlock.” No release date has been given, but it looks like the project is nearing completion.

In the comments, Lewis confirms that the game will come packed with loads of free content, but that additional premium buildings and mission packs will be made available for purchase following launch.

Players will have to balance resources in order to maintain the city's economy and even drop into the street in order to take on missions (like putting out fires) firsthand. You'll also be able to jump into sports cars in order to hit cleverly placed trick ramps, or take them straight out onto your handmade race track.

Once your city is up and running, your friends can come in to check it out. And if you're curious about what other players are doing, you can visit the train station to head to other cities.

I know the standard approach to Home is to make fun of it, but I had a lot of fun with the virtual world a few years ago. When curiosity catches me and I decide to drop in from time to time, I'm constantly surprised by how active it remains and how many things there are for people to do. A big game like Home Tycoon coming out just goes to show that Sony's virtual civilization is still going strong.